Customer Reviews

Poetic Meter and Poetic Form

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Fussell's foreword says that his book is for aspiring readers, not aspiring writers. But if you are an aspiring poet, I think Fussell has something to offer that is absent in most "handbooks".

One of the most important things Fussell addresses is how the form of a poem affects the meaning and impression of the total poem. For example, he notes how many poetic forms are inevitably coloured by their initial or most famous use. He says regarding Tennyson's In Memoriam stanza-form, that it "is now so closely associated with the sturdy, serviceable elegaic atmosphere of In Memoriam itself that...its uses now seem limited to occasions which either resemble or mock the original" (Ch 8 The English Stanzas).

Another chapter that poets will find helpful is Metrical Variations, in which Fussell examines how poets substitute variant feet to create particular effects. Or if your interest is in free verse, he devotes a chapter to examining the characteristics of successful free verse, including how line breaks create effects.

This is not a substitute for a general handbook of poetry, and assumes a minimal knowledge of poetic technique, meter, &c. But if you are serious about reading or writing poetry, I don't think you can afford to miss this book.

When I was 21 and in my first year of graduate school, Paul Fussell's "Poetic Meter and Poetic Form" was one of the first text books assigned to me. When I bought the book and saw how slim it was, I snickered, "Grad school's gonna be a walk in the park!"

Yeah, RIGHT!

This densely packed tome is not for the uninitiated and definitely not absorbed in just one reading. On and off, over the last 20 years, I have come back to this book to refresh my memory and, usually, to astonish myself. The book's real strength, besides Professor Fussell's obvious command of his subject, and his ability to convey that command, is in the sprinkling of dozens of anecdotes by and about poets about other poets and poetry. Even at this late date in my life, I can't pretend to understand the entire book but what I do understand I admire and respect. "Poetic Meter and Poetic Form" is not recommended to anyone studying poetry; it is urgently required.

This book is a classic of prosodic exposition. (And understand, when I call a book a classic, I am not just lapsing into a cliche; it really IS a classic.) Fussell shows us the relations between form and content, between rhyme and rhythm on the one hand and the function of these formal devices to illuminate meaning on the other. The book also devotes a chapter to empirical observations on the properties of free verse, and it includes a concise bibliography of other works on prosody. Highly recommended.

This is a lucid, engaging short book on the elements of poetry listed in the title: meter and form. Fussell does not provide the kind of encyclopedic information found in many poetry "handbooks"; what he does offer is a basic approach to scansion and analysis, and models for using these techniques in reading and writing about poems. This is a classic text, written with a great love of formal poetry, and referred to often by students and writers of poetry. The only thing that keeps my rating under 10 is that it is fairly out of date, and there are more recent texts that cover contemporary poets and verse forms with more rigor than Fussell. But for a readable treatment of the accentual-syllabic tradition and the first century or so of free verse, this book is a gem.

I came across this book for my Poetic Analysis class in college. It is an exellent book on meter and form. I can't even say how much this book has helped me with both reading and writing poetry. If you want to write better poetry or understand the poetry you read, then this is a good book to pick up.

Fussell's command of formal verse is extensive and even if you're more inclined to free verse I highly recommend his book because it provides essential tools for becoming a more critical poetry reader. Scansion and the additional vocabulary have been the most useful tools for me.

I used this book for my Literary Analysis class and it helps explain all different kinds of poetic forms. It goes into detail about Petrachan and Shakespearean sonnets and talks in length about meter. The only down side about Fussell is he tends to go on and on about some of the less important stuff but overall it's a very helpful book about poetry if you're willing to commit.

This book is wonderful. Fussell in opinionated and unafraid to display his own taste, but I find that a good thing (uncommon in academic writing in my experience). My favorite idea of Fussell's is that for a stanza break to be merited, something must happen in the white space _between_ the stanzas: there must be a shift of register or mood.

I can't wait to read his most famous book, The Great War and Modern Memory, on the literary impact of World War I.

A handful of books I've read have imparted lessons that stuck with me for life. This is one of them. As others have said, this is a book to be studied rather than read.

But the writing is so elegant that you'll enjoy the study. After you've worked your way through this book, the way you read and write will be changed forever--for prose as well as poetry--because the best prose occasionally employs the poetic techniques that Fussell explains so well.

You'll read a phrase that seems particularly apt, you'll wonder why it works so well, and then it will occur to you: Why, that phrase is iambic until the last two syllables, which includes a trochaic substitution. And the trochee at the end conveys exactly the twist that the writer wanted to convey.

And when you're lucky, on a good day, you'll look at a sentence you just wrote, and you'll see the same forces at work.

Fussell's work is fantastic...the only problems are his high handed attitude towards free verse and a general snarkiness throughout the text. But overall, a good resource.